Beta Incoming

Happy Spring!

Opt-ins for the Mists beta are now open, though on top of that about 10% of WoW's playerbase has already signed up for the Annual Pass (this guy included) and thus are guaranteed a spot in the beta. How they're going to fit a million people in the beta is something I don't know how they're going to pull off. How the hell do you sift through all that feedback? And how do you deal with such a huge number of players on what is essentially a horribly broken version of the game?

I opted in for the Cataclysm beta, but did not get in. This time I'm looking forward to trying my hand at checking out Mists. That said, my goal (and I'll have to see if I can hold to this) is that I will be doing two things: briefly checking in on my central toons - Jarsus mainly, and then the other four in my "core five," plus maybe Shibti the Mage if I can copy him as well (I want to see how Arcane plays.) Mostly, though, I'm going to avoid going to Pandaria itself to try to preserve some of the fun of discovery.

The big thing I'll be interested in doing is trying out the Monk. While all the tanks are getting a bit of a reworking to make them use "Active Mitigation," the Monk seems to have a ton of abilities that are all about defense. I've mentioned before that I'm not 100% behind Active Mitigation - I might even be below 50%. But if I can see it in action, and it doesn't turn into a tunnel-vision personal Healbot minigame as I fear it might, I'll be relieved. I also wouldn't mind some practice before I roll up my Brewmaster for real (and I'm totally going to get one of those badass beards like Chen Stormstout seems to have.)

With the Beta non-specifically imminent, this raises a lot of questions regarding release dates.

Frankly, I think it's got to be a 2012 release. A: they aren't going to want a repeat of the full year of 3.3 (good patch though that was,) and B: Without the 1-60 revamp, Mists is going to be much less work to complete than Cataclysm was. Though there are certainly unfinished areas, and we don't actually have a full dungeon and raid list, it's clear that what they have got looks pretty damned polished. I imagine that the dungeons and zones that they did not show are probably not quite finished, but mostly complete. This could be wishful thinking, but it seems probable.

So, let's assume the Beta comes out before the end of the month - essentially within a week. I can't actually remember how long the previous Betas went, but I think they were about three months. That really bodes well. Let's say four months to be safe, plus a period between the end of the beta and the two weeks of pre-expansion events (Justice for Theramore!: new Alliance battlecry?) Even with that we're looking at an early Fall release.

Still, delays are always a possibility, so let's not count our chickens before they hatch. Still, I have a good feeling about this one.